Out of Sight
by Bekkoni
Summary: Sequel to From The Shadows. Batman and Angel try to keep their relationship hidden from the other Leaguers. Yeah, like that'll happen. WARNING: this is a sequel to my horrible first fanfic, kept up for archive purposes. Read at your own risk .
1. Chapter 1

"You were up here for six hours yesterday?" Superman said, double-checking the log sheet.

"I did build the place," Batman did not look up from the paperwork he was filling out. Monitor duty. Sigh.

"You never stay that long. Even for the Christmas parties."

Batman gave him a look. "Because parties are_ so _my thing."

"You didn't even have monitor duty yesterday."

"Do I interrogate _you_ about what _you_ do on _your_ off time?" Bruce asked. Superman thought for a moment and nodded. "Fine. But I do it for important reasons."

"Or sometimes you're just testing me. Or just trying to annoy me."

Batman sighed, got up, and dumped the paperwork in front of Clark. "I'm leaving. Since you're so interested in my affairs, take care of that."

*********************************

Okay, technically he wasn't leaving-leaving, just exiting the room, but still. He had a couple hours before the sun went down in Gotham, and he wasn't going to spend it filling out forms. Not when there was a much more enticing option.

"I didn't even know there was a Christmas Party," Angel said, when he opened the door to his room, and found her perched on the desk chair. "Next year I'll have to spike the punch with absinthe or something."

"It's a little creepy that you know what's always happening to me."

She smiled. "I only see it when I'm asleep. It's not like I'm trying."

He leaned down and kissed her lightly and she kissed him back.

"You know…" she said.

"Yes?"

"Both Bekka Haring and Bruce Wayne are attending the Gotham Charity Ball."

Bruce feigned innocence. "So?"

Angel sighed. "I know you're not thick."

"Becks…"

Her green eyes flashed. "Give me one reason why we can't go together."

"It would be toeing the line. And I thought you weren't into the whole spotlight-red carpet thing."

"I'm not--but damn it, Bruce! It would be nice to not have to duck behind a fern every time I wanted to kiss you."

He looked at her. She stared back. "Fine. But this means that Batman and Angel can't start up together."

"That's fine. I can do without being questioned by the Boy Scout."

Batman scoffed. "I don't think he'd do that."

"He did it to Selina Kyle."

"WHAT?!"

**A/N: teeheehee**


	2. Cafeterias are Dangerous

The week after the ball, _People_ magazine carried the headline "Who Is Bruce Wayne's New Girl?" On the cover was a picture of the infamous playboy with his arm around a tall, white-blonde woman. He was looking at whoever the photographer had caught him talking to. She was facing the camera, staring right at it, with a very unsettling smile.

No one that night could remember her name.

***********************************************

"I thought you swore off reporters after Vicki almost found out The Secret," Clark said, tossing a magazine down on the table. "Don't look so surprised, I keep up with the competition too."

"I thought you didn't read trash," Just his luck, to be stuck on monitor duty with Clark for the second time in a fortnight.

"You didn't answer my question."

Bruce glared at him. "We just had this conversation."

"Calm down. It was just a question," Superman said, and sighed. "You do what you want."

"Thank you."

"It's what you've always done."

***********************************************

"Noticed anything?" Shayera asked. John was seated across from her in the cafeteria. He looked up from his plate of spaghetti , swallowed, and shook his head.

"Um, new boots?"

She was tempted to take a crack at him with her mace (she'd had monitor duty with Diana last shift—that never led to anything good), but instead pointed across the cafeteria. John looked.

Batman and Angel, seated at the same table.

"When do you ever see either of them in here?" she asked.

"Never."

"Right."

***********************************************

On the other side of the cafeteria, Angel sat up a little. Batman caught the motion. "What?"

She tilted her head slightly towards Shayera and Green Lantern. "They're talking about us." She smiled—he couldn't see her face but he could tell.

He turned around and caught Shayera looking. She pointed not-so-subtly at Angel. He glared at her, long enough for the Thanagarian warrior to blush a little and turn back around.

***************************************************

Shayera turned back to John and gave him a look. "You see?" she asked. "there's something going on between those two."

"Batman and Angel, right." John said, finishing off his Coke. "You did hear about how they tried to tear each other apart in the med bay?"

"You never know," Shayera said. "But her? Over _Diana_?"

"We don't know that there's anything going on," John said. He had sudden image of Batman's form coming up behind him and growling, _just what did you and your winged ex-girlfriend tell Wonder Woman?_

It was not something he wanted made reality. He may have possessed the most powerful weapon in the universe, but Bruce could send even Superman running in the other direction.

Shayera wasn't looking at him. Instead, she had a little malicious grin on her face.

John knew that look, and nothing good ever came of it.

"We should check them out," she said, "_all_ of us. It'll be fun."

"What, exactly, will be fun? Getting murdered by Batman?"

"No," she said, eyes glinting, "Surprising him. How much has he ever shared about his life? Think about it, if she really turns out to be his girlfriend, just what _Clark _would say."

"You just like to make trouble," John said, although he was beginning to see the appeal.

"Oh, yes," she replied.

*************************************************

Flash couldn't stop laughing. He was literally lying on the floor of the conference room, shaking.

Diana was cross. She didn't show it outwardly, but you could tell in the way she put her hand on her hip, squared her shoulders, and hardened her gaze.

J'onn said nothing. He merely looked down at his data pad and continued with his task.

Superman was surprised, as he always was when something closer to the unexpected was presented as an option. He tended to think in the black and white, and this was most definitely a shade of grey.

"Well?" Shayera said.

"It's…an interesting possibility," Diana said, controlling the sudden urge to hunt Angel down and put one of her silver bracelet's through the other woman's skull. If it was true, of course. Which it obviously wasn't, since he had turned down Diana. There was no way he would pick Angel over her.

Superman was silent for a minute. "I'm sorry," he said with a small chuckle. "I keep having flashbacks to them wrestling on the ground, with the wreckage of med bay tables all around them. There is no possible way they're in love."

"Then why are they spending so much time together?" Flash asked, getting a hold of himself and sitting up.

"What do you mean?" John said.

"Well, they're always coming into the cafeteria together, and Bats got Angel coffee twice, no four times. And they were playing cards together, in the library, in one of the alcoves…" he started giggling again.

"WALLACE!" Diana snapped. "How long has this been going on?"

"I dunno," he said. "Three months?"

They all exchanged glances, and a silent resolve to get to the bottom of this.

********************************************************************

**Next Up: Diana challenges Bekka to a duel, Clark and Bruce are locked in a closet, and all the founding members (plus Angel) have a nice, civil, dinner together.**


	3. Discussion, Dinner, and a Duel

Angel was in the gym, running a simulation of the Secret Society. She swung an energy beam into Shade's legs. Right before she connected with the hologram, it vanished.

"Hey!" She spun towards the holo-room control panel.

Wonder Woman was standing by the door, hand over the OFF button. She had the other on her hip, and was posed in a way that made Angel feel like a member of the Secret Society herself.

"It's polite to ask permission, Princess," She snapped.

The use of Bruce's nickname had the desired effect on Diana. Her expression turned decidedly ungracious and she stepped close enough for Angel to count the streaks in her eyes.

"Personal space," Angel stuck out an arm and prodded her back two feet.

"I'm challenging you."

"_Excuse_ me?"

"You heard me," Diana said. "I'm challenging you. To a duel. You know why."

Angel looked at her, cocking an eyebrow under her mask. "If I win I assume you'll leave us alone?"

"And if I win," Diana said, "You tell him you never want to see him again."

Angel shrugged. "First one down more than five seconds loses."

The two women rushed at each other.

* * *

"_Why _am I helping you do this?" Bruce asked, shifting a couple of buckets from the right side of the shelf to the left with his foot.

"Because I have to clean the janitor's closet and your exact words were 'If you just leave me alone I will do whatever you want'," Clark smiled.

"You're enjoying this."

"Heck yes," Clark lined up the window cleaners in a neat row and dusted off the shelf. "So, why do you like Angel so much?"

"You said you would drop it if I did this," Bruce swatted at an extraordinarily large cobweb in the corner of the room. It tangled around his arm.

"Technically, you haven't finished yet."

Bruce tried to brush off the cobweb. It stuck to his costume and held on for dear life. Clark chuckled and Bruce briefly wished he'd had the foresight to bring some Kryptonite.

The single light bulb above their heads flickered. Bruce reached out for the doorknob, to open it and get some more light.

It wouldn't turn. He jerked it again, thinking it was just stuck. No luck.

Bruce put on his best glare and turned around. "Clark. What. Did. You. Do?

Superman smiled and finished sweeping off the last of the dust. "Oh, is it locked?"

"Don't play coy."

"You haven't answered my question about Angel yet."

"Open the damn door, Clark." Bruce pulled a miniature laser and a lock picking kit out of his belt. He tried to turn on the laser first. It sputtered and went out. He opened the kit. All of his tools had been replaced by toothpicks.

"You enlisted Flash," He clenched his fists and tried very, very hard to not slam them into the nearest object.

"Well?" Clark said. "Start talking."

* * *

Bekka had Diana on the floor in a headlock, choking her with a tight necklace of blue energy.

"One, two…" Five seconds and she would win this idiotic duel.

Wonder Woman grabbed her by her hood and through her into the left wall. The gym's software automatically compensated by turning the wall into a feather pillow, but it still stung.

Instantly Diana was on top of her, pushing her face into the mat. "Give it up," she snarled.

Bekka smiled into the blue plastic of the floor. "He doesn't love you. You could win this, but it won't change much."

Diana threw her into the opposite wall.

"Face it," Bekka said with a grin, even though there was blood dripping from her nose. Both of those things were hidden behind her mask, anyway. "Bruce gets what he wants. If he wants me there's nothing you can do about it."

Diana stood still, anger and hurt winning her over for half a second. It was enough. Bekka reached out to the panel next to her on the wall, flipped off the gym's safeties, and thrust two spears of energy at Diana. They were as highly charged as she could make them.

Wonder Woman arched her back and flew off the ground, the electricity burning through her veins like a lightning strike. Finally, she fell.

"One, two, three, four…five. You're out," Angel whispered, and licked the blood off her lips.

* * *

"I like her because she gets it," Bruce said. He'd given in and was seated on an overturned mop bucket. Bits of spiderweb still clung to his shirt.

"It?" Clark asked, standing in front of the door, just in case.

"She's not like Dee. You can see that," Bruce fiddled with the useless laser.

"Well, she's certainly just as dark as you," Clark said. "I'm just at a loss as to how that's a _good_ thing."

"We understand each other."

"I understand you, and I don't go around in black acting like a reject from emo camp."

Bruce raised his eyebrows. "First of all, no you don't understand me nearly as much as you think you do. I can pull the most absurd stunts and make you think there's a plausible explanation. And second, you take that back."

"I just hope you're happy." Clark said. "But when you're brooding in that cave of yours because she wasn't what you thought, I reserve the right to say I told you so."

Bruce smiled slightly. "I don't think that will happen. Now come on, let me out."

Clark unlocked the door, but kept his hand on the knob. "Fine," he said, "But there's one more thing you have to do."

* * *

Alfred set the last platters in front of the assembled company, and took his seat at the back of the table. "Well, I for one am certainly excited to get to know Miss Bekka."

Bekka blushed slightly and hid it behind a forkful of mashed potatoes. She was seated next to Bruce. On the left side of the table was Dick, Tim, Barbra, Clark and Diana. Wally, Cassandra, John, Shayera, and J'onn were on the right side.

"How did you two meet?" Clark asked, after two minutes of awkward silence. Bruce grunted something unintelligible.

Bekka raised her eyebrows. "There are only so many places the cape-and-mask crowd frequents. Where do you _think _we met?"

"You two are a lot alike, Bruce," Clark took a bite of green beans. "It was only a question."

Diana grumbled and stabbed her plate with her knife, accidentally taking a piece out of the edge. She descreetly dropped it on the floor.

"You might want to get some wine, Alfred," Dick said. "This is going to be a long night."


End file.
